


A Sweet Ferment

by 1V1



Series: Apprentice Antics [10]
Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Alternate Reality, Apprentice Suri, Domestic Fluff, F/M, I actually have never made it sobs I just pulled from various recipies, Making Kimchi, Messing up a ficitonal recipe, One Fear, Slice of Life, Valerius coded as Italian/Korean, pls tell me if I made something horrid oh god
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-12
Updated: 2018-12-12
Packaged: 2019-09-16 23:42:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16963707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1V1/pseuds/1V1
Summary: Suri and the Consul Valerius have been seeing one another in secret for a time, and in growing close, she and he plan to spend the day in her kitchens working on some seasonal pickling before the season ends. She hardly expects much, yet, somehow, the consul still manages to surprise her.





	A Sweet Ferment

**Author's Note:**

  * For [orangemaplesocks](https://archiveofourown.org/users/orangemaplesocks/gifts).



She had invited him over to help her pickle a few things. It was an odd invite, but a strangely… nice one. It broke routine, and not to mention he secretly was curious as to what they would be making. She’d asked him a few days prior what he wanted to make, if anything, and gave her a simple list. Granted, he knew she was a picky eater, so he’d chosen very mild ingredients. And brought a few of his own, in order to surprise her.  
Sneaking to her shop was easy enough, and the thrill of her wrapping her arms around him and peppering his face in soft kisses made all the tension in him melt away.   
“Hello darling.” He closed his eyes, leaning into her embrace as the sweet spice of cinnamon reached his nose.  
“Hello mo rún.” She replied, smiling before letting him go, floating back to the kitchen where he could smell the faint twinge and tang of fermentation in the air.   
“I started on a few things- the eggs and the garlic- oh and I did the salt on the cabbage like you said? It’s wilted now and all… flimsy.”   
Valerius held back a chuckle, coming from behind her to plant a kiss on the top of her head.   
“Wonderful. Now, have you ever had fermented cabbage before?” Her face betrayed what she thought of it. “Now what if I said we were going to be making a good version?” The magician, so willing to follow faith of magic yet not on his culinary skills.  
“I’m listening.” She teased.   
“I brought some of the harder to find ingredients- but lets have the cabbage soak in the brine a bit longer- we can work on your tea eggs in the meantime.”

Suri gave him a wary look. “A consul who makes his own pickled cabbage?”  
He scoffed at her teasing. “Every family has a recipe Suri- my own included.” 

It was a soft kind of day. A day where the hearth crackled with burning oak and the shop hummed as wind chimes moved from the tiny movements of the pair working to and fro in the kitchen. When It came time to cut all the seasonings and flavorings for the pickled cabbage, Valerius had insisted Suri get a chair- rest her legs because there was a good amount of veggies to be washed, peeled, and cut. She tutted him at first, but relented when he began to unpack the satchel he’d brought with him. Exotic mint and other variants of ones she knew. A radish that was plain and starchy. Lotus stems- something she’d never had and found strange on her tongue, too hard to really enjoy.   
“It is best candied.” He told her. “But it imparts a sweet flavor, which will help balance the spices.” Green onion and a very large chive. Carrot-   
Peeling the garlic had them both joking how after they’d need to refrain for a few intimate activities. Neither wanted to smell ‘off’ to one another. Though Valerius insisted that she always smelled of cinnamon and tasted wonderful, (a quip that earned him a small flick of peeled ginger at his head). 

She smiled as she watched him work in the kitchen, taking a break as he moved with a practiced ease over the dish he was making in her home. The deep scent of red pepper flakes, spices, and fermentation hanging in the air yet for all the sour tang it felt comforting, cozy almost. He would pause on occasion, turning to look at her and smile, or explain what he was doing. The eggs steeped in their tea, set aside for a later date, Suri laughed when in his working, he almost added one of the eggs she’d left out for a later snack. 

The thick red paste was interesting to Suri, up until he brought up the dried shrimp. “For Flavor.” She just pulled back, asking how dried fish would make it better. Valerius just smiled, as if knowing a secret she did not. The final piece he said, came from a secret ingredient. Two in fact.   
“Oh? And what are these?” He pulled out a small vial of white seeds and a chunk of-  
“Is that coconut sugar?” Suri perked at the sight of it. Such a large chunk was hard to come by, and from the color, it was high quality no less. Somehow, it both surprised her and did not.   
“And sesame seeds. This particular batch I thought to make sweeter than my usual. Since I had a hunch you’d not be keen to it from the outset.” It was sweet of him, (no pun on her part intended), and had he up and walking over to pepper his face in the soft kisses she knew he well adored.   
“You spoil me mo rún.” He looked softer at her, more a man and less a consul.  
“If anything I owe you my thanks my darling. It has been… a long time since I have been able to make this. It reminds me of my home. My… family growing up.” He said no more of it, but she could practically feel the long dull edge of grief in his voice. A tender kiss, and he went back to his work, letting the veggie and paste mix sit as he wrapped his hair up and borrowed one of her aprons to work. 

Binding up his sleeves, his outer robes removed, he looked different as he began to coat the mixture over the cut cabbage, working into the deep ceramic pot. She helped after her initial resistance. Finding the red and veggie mash to be more aromatic than pungent. For the most part they worked in silence. Though, Suri managing to get the paste to make a fart noise with her hands sent them both into a small fit of giggles. As the clay pot was packed down, the magician looked at her lover and blinked.

The faint gold shimmer was sprinkled with a rich dark bronze, silver flecks at the very edges. Valerius had no magic she knew of, but Suri knew the touch of an Arcana. As he finished the clean up, she consulted the cards and sucked in a tiny breath as she saw who greeted her. Traditions, teachings, guidance, _marriage _.  
The Hierophant’s voice was old and soothing, offering that she only need to look to her companion for guidance; as he smiled and sealed the pots, marking them with the date and an expected peak for their ferment.  
“Suri?” He looked at her, his eyes shining with affection. “Where shall we put these and the eggs?” He held a pot under his arm, in the other the jug of eggs.   
“OH- Here I have a place in the back of the pantry for them.” As she guided him to the spot, pouting as he threatened to leave them on the top shelf so she’d have reason to call on him, she didn’t get to feel the last message from the Arcana of Ceremonies.__

__Not to fear the bond made from love._ _


End file.
